ONS release published on how changes in housing costs are impacting households

The Office for National Statistics published an official statistics release on 9 January 2023 examining how changes in housing costs are affecting households¹. The release states that people with fixed-rate mortgage deals coming up for renewal are facing increased mortgage costs, because interest rates on mortgages rose over 2022¹.

The release says housing costs have also increased for those with variable rate mortgages and for private renters¹. It does not set out figures for individual households, and no breakdown by nation, region or income group is given in the published text¹.

The release is published as Official Statistics, which the ONS describes as produced impartially and free from political influence¹. The full analysis sits on the ONS website, with the GOV.UK page acting as a publication notice dated 9 January 2023¹.

Why it matters for households

The release identifies three groups facing higher housing costs: homeowners on fixed-rate deals that are due to end and be renewed, homeowners on variable rate mortgages, and private renters¹. For the first group, the change bites at the point of renewal, when a new deal is arranged, rather than immediately¹. For the second group, payments can move as the mortgage rate changes¹. For renters, the release records higher housing costs without giving figures¹.

The release does not state how much any individual household's costs have risen, nor when the increases took effect for particular borrowers or tenants¹. It also does not say how many households fall into each group¹. Those details have not been reported in the published text¹.

The wider context of household borrowing and the cost pressures households face is covered in our guides to household borrowing and the Household Costs Index. How fixed mortgage pricing responds to gilt yields and swap costs between Bank Rate decisions is explained in our guide to gilt yields and fixed mortgages.

What happens next

No further steps, publication dates or updates are set out in the release¹. The page carries a single update noting it was published on 9 January 2023¹.